Reflections from a Different Journey: What Adults with Disabilities Wish All Parents Knew

by Stanley D. Klein, John D. Kemp, Marlee Matlin

Overview

Most parents of children with disabilities lack personal experience with adults with disabilities. Hearing from people who have lived the disability experience can provide all parents with essential information about the possibilities for their children. Reflections from a Different Journey comprises forty inspiring essays written by successful adult role models who share what it is like to grow up with a disability. Compiled by two award-winning advocates for the disabled, each eloquently written essay is an insightful source of wisdom, inspiration, and emotional support as well as a rare glimpse inside the lives and minds of people with many different disabilities -- cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, autism, learning disabilities, deafness, blindness, mental illness, developmental disabilities, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, congenital amputation, and chronic health conditions.

In preparing their essays, the authors were each asked to write about something they wished their own parents had read or been told while they were growing up. The essays, which demonstrate that, first and foremost, people with disabilities are human beings with the same needs and desires as people without disabilities are arranged thematically. Brimming with a wealth of life-affirming lessons, Reflections from a Different Journey offers many specific suggestions for parents and family members of people with disabilities, older disabled children, and education and health care professionals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780071422697
Publisher:	McGraw-Hill Companies, The
Publication date:	11/10/2010
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	666,265
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

Table of Contents

	Foreword	vii
	Acknowledgments	xi
	Introduction	xiii
1	Love Me and Accept Me as I Am
	Ain't Done Too Bad for a Cauliflower	3
	Disability Does Not Equal Liability	8
	What I'd Tell That Doctor	13
	Please Believe Me	16
	Parents Without Prejudice	18
	The Virtues of "Ballpark Normalcy"	23
	Take Me as I Am!	27
	Please Accept Me--All of Me	32
2	Parents Are the Most Important Experts
	What's a Mother to Do?	39
	The Rules of the "Game"	44
	"Deaf People Can Do Anything but Hear"	49
	The Autism Bomb	54
	Solutions from the Heart	60
	Creative Pathways	65
	My Secret Childhood Existence	70
	Another Way of Seeing	75
	As Normal as Can Be	79
	If Mom Only Knew	84
3	Parental Expectations
	Affirmation and Challenge	91
	A Stubborn Sense of Entitlement	96
	Independence: Lessons from My Mom	101
	Go for It!	105
	Tapping My Potential	109
	The Hand That You're Dealt	113
	Alien or Activist? A Woman in Search of a Big Life	117
	Giving Our Children Roots and Wings	122
4	Sexuality
	Relationship Realism	131
	Code of Silence	136
	My Mother's Warnings	140
5	Education About Disability
	Honesty, the Best Policy	147
	No Secrets: A Kid Is a Kid	152
	Twice Exceptional	156
	Does Your Child Have Epilepsy? So Do I!	161
	Learning Was Always Hard for Me	165
	Please Don't Be Put Off by Your Doctor	170
	Listening Is the Key	175
	As Much Love as You Can Muster	179
	Groups Offer Valuable Life Lessons	184
	Creating an Individual	189
	Afterword: Disability Culture	195
	Resources for Parents and Family Members	201

Editorial Reviews

Klein, a noted attorney and advocate for people with disabilities, and Kemp, a clinical psychologist and former editor of Exceptional Parent magazine, have gathered 40 essays from a large sample of disabled adults to answer the question, "What do you wish your parents had known?" Organized by common themes (e.g., "Sexuality" and "Education and Disability"), the essays do not tend to the extreme sentiments of "my parents screwed up" or "my parents were perfect" that one might expect. Instead, most of the contributors offer a nice mix of both positive and negative comments. Parent readers will ask themselves, "Am I doing that?" or "I'm not doing that, am I?" The resource section includes a few listings that are often missing from such lists, nicely rounding out the text. Both Klein and Kemp are highly visible in the disabled community, and actress Marlee Maltin has written a foreword, which could create sizable demand. For most collections.-KellyJo Houtz Griffin, Eatonville, WA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal